citizen and therefore classified as an “enemy alien.” Although he had lived in the United States for 42 years, he was prohibited by law from becoming a U.S. His stature as landowner and community leader, as well as his position as the president of the local Japanese Association, put Furuta on the FBI list for interrogation and arrest. Army Internment Camp at Lordsburg, New Mexico. He was arrested and taken to the Tuna Canyon Detention Center in Los Angeles, before he was transferred to the U.S. citizens born in the United States.įollowing the signing of Executive Order 9066, and in conjunction with other laws already in place that inhibited the rights of Japanese Americans, the entire community at Historic Wintersburg was either detained or incarcerated through the end of the war in 1945.Ĭharles Furuta was interrogated by the FBI on the back porch of his family’s 1912 bungalow. As a result, roughly 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated, the majority of whom were U.S. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 into law on February 19, 1942, which mandated the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. Among the very first people arrested were longtime congregants and elders of the Wintersburg Japanese Mission, as well as teachers, clergy, and civic leaders in the Japanese American community. Immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Orange County residents of Japanese ancestry were arrested and detained. While the community at Wintersburg village had experienced considerable success up to this point, the lives of Japanese Americans were altered forever on December 7, 1941. California’s second Alien Land Law in 1920 further tightened restrictions, which were cemented at the federal level with The Immigration Act of 1924. Within months after Furuta was deeded the Wintersburg property, the California Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibited immigrants “ineligible for citizenship” from owning property and Japanese immigrants were prevented from becoming citizens. Although Terasawa returned to his home in San Francisco, the legacy of the mission continued with the help of Charles Furuta, who was deeded the property in 1912 and continued to dedicate a portion of his farm to the Wintersburg Japanese Mission.Īs the Furuta family settled into their home and their community, Japanese Americans’ rights were systematically being taken away. By 1910, construction of the Wintersburg Japanese Mission and manse, or parsonage, was complete. Reverend Barnabus Hisayoshi Terasawa, with financial assistance from Charles Furuta, purchased the parcel now known as Historic Wintersburg from its previous owners in 1908. Just four years later, multiple religious leaders-including Episcopalians, Buddhists, Presbyterians, and Methodists- founded the Wintersburg Japanese Mission after a community meeting in the small farming village’s armory. The first-generation Japanese immigrants, known as Issei, arrived in Orange County in 1900.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |